• Confirms Shipping Position Weekly’s Story
Barely one month after Shipping Position Weekly scooped that the Federal Government was contemplating an audit of the four – year old port concessioning programme, the minister of transport, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman last week confirmed that a committee to carry out the audit is about to be constituted to evaluate the programme.
He confirmed to visiting members of the governing council of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) that “the Federal Government has set up an audit team to evaluate the effectiveness of the concession. When government decided to give out the ports on concession, it was not because we wanted to keep them as public institutions, but we felt that it should be in line with the best global practices.
Justifying the impending audit, the minister added that : “Since 2006 when we did that, we have not been able to go back as government to assess the situation, but recently we have constituted a team that will give us an audit of what the concession had done so far.”
Shipping Position Weekly had reported in its June 13, 2010 edition that “the audit is expected to focus on the various terms of agreement that were reached between NPA and the Bureau of Public Enterprises, (BPE), and the concessionaires on the other hand. It is also expected to appraise the extent of fulfilment of obligations on the part of the private terminal operators, the extent of provision and maintenance of common user facilities, among others”.
Our source at that time who is also an insider in the transport ministry had given an insight into the mindset of the minister of transport, saying that “the honourable minister is convinced that NPA has lost its control of the situation and he is determined to ensure, not only that the terms of the concession agreements are adhered to, but also to determine the extent of compliance with extant provisions.”, even as he insisted that the exercise is not a probe, “but a simple attempt to ensure that no one is sleeping”.
But last week, the minister assured the CRFFN team which was led on the visit by the chairman of its governing board, Mr Tony Nwabunike that it audit is not an effort that is meant to witch-hunt, but one that is aimed at fine- tuning port operations.
He added that the audit committee is likely to be inaugurated this week.
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